Far More Realms Than Nine, Too Many Places in Time
by AaylaKitofNiflheim
Summary: When the Crown Prince of Asgard and the would-be destroyer of Midgard find a machine that can take them anywhere in space and time, what good will come of it? Not much...


**SUMMARY: When two Asgardians find a machine that can go anywhere in time and space, what good will come of it? Not much…**

**A/N: Hello, and welcome to my beautiful, shiny new fanfic! If any lovely beta wants to give me some help on it, I'd be glad to let you (my beta for my other story is very busy and I don't want to burden her with yet another one). Any random notes I want to tell you? Why, yes! There's going to be no slash in this (they're brothers…), and there'll be a lot of adventures through basically everywhere. Don't expect a whole lot of Asgard in this. They've got all of time and space to visit, why would they return home? Do expect plenty of adventure, a pinch of drama, hurt/comfort, and humor, and tons of saving any world that they wander across, no matter whether or not Loki thinks it could use a little ruling!**

You couldn't blame Loki for wanting to wander the palace grounds. And you certainly couldn't blame Thor for wanting to go with him. The two were practically inseparable, after all—and not for any sentimental reasons. Simply because Loki was right now supposed to be under house arrest.

But Loki had always been good at getting Thor to do whatever he wanted, and after a bit of pleading and cajoling, Thor had finally agreed (_"All right Loki, but just this once"_) to let him out. But only for a little bit.

Loki smirked, knowing that he would be able to stay out for as long as he wanted. The "_I feel like a prisoner, why don't you have them execute me, I'm no good to you anyway, I'm miserable, I'd prefer death," _while a touch melodramatic, was excellent for getting Thor to agree with whatever he wanted.

He tugged on Thor's arm. "Can we go into the forest?" It would be easy to get away from Thor there. And no one would be around… and if he was good enough, he'd be able to lead Thor on a hunt for a while until he'd never be able to find his way back.

Thor hesitated. "Loki, you shouldn't even be out of the palace. Why do you even want to…"

Loki widened his eyes slightly. "Thor, please? For me? I'm so tired of the palace..." Sentiment was Thor's great weakness, after all.

"Loki… oh, all right. But why?"

"The sun glinting off the water hurts my eyes," Loki made up, walking in.

Thor followed, wondering whether or not he _should_ be letting Loki wander this far away from the palace. But Loki's sudden behavior change from _Thor, leave me alone, I hate you_ to _Thor, can you let me out of here, you can stay by me the whole time, I love you _had been welcome if not a bit suspicious to Odin and Frigga.

Thor thought it welcome as well, but saw nothing suspicious or wrong about it. Loki had seen sense, he decided. And he was more than willing to let him out.

You could blame Thor for letting Loki out in the first place. But why bother? It certainly wasn't the fault of either of them what happened next.

Just as Loki faked a snakebite and fell to the ground, a strange humming sound appeared in the air. Thor ignored the noise, instead rushing to Loki's side, but Loki stiffened slightly and almost gave up his ruse before it was time.

Loki peered over Thor's shoulder and noticed something crash to the ground behind them. It was box-shaped, strangely enough, and smoking slightly.

_That_, Loki thought, _is my way out._ He struggled slightly in Thor's arms, giving the impression of a person breathing their dying breath.

"Thor," Loki whispered.

"Loki. You'll be fine. I- I promise. I won't leave you…." Thor's voice caught in his throat, and he raised a hand to stroke the side of Loki's face. Loki rolled his eyes inwardly. _Sentimental old fool._

"Come here. Let me…" Loki gave a fake gasp of pain "let me talk to you. Please."

Thor leaned over him, bringing himself to the right height for Loki to use him as a springpad. "I'm here. What do you need?"

Loki grinned at him. _"Loki'd!" _The second Thor realized what had happened, Loki had kicked him in the stomach and rolled over him, jumping to his feet and fleeing to the box.

Thor sprang up and followed him. Loki ran inside the box.

Not fast enough, though. Thor caught his ankle and tripped him up, landing inside the box with him and slamming the door.

"Loki! What was that about?"

Loki dropped the innocent façade. "Can't you _tell_? By the Nine Realms, I really did think that you were smarter than this, Thor."

"You're not dying," Thor said as though the idea was something new to him.

Loki rolled his eyes. "_Yes_, Thor, I'm not dying. And why did _you_ chose to let me go into the forest? Wasn't it somewhat obvious that I was pretending? You never have been the brightest, Thor, but I have to admit that I was surprised when you actually fell for it." He let Thor mull over that idea for a while and walked around the box.

It was bigger on the inside. That didn't surprise Loki. He'd seen stranger things. The center of the room had a large clear pole that glowed a light blue-green, with hourglass-shaped tubing inside of it. Around the pole was a set of consoles, filled with strange buttons and twisting _things_.

"What _is_ this?" Thor asked, distracted momentarily from his thoughts.

"Time machine," Loki said, wandering around the console. "It comes from a different realm."

"What realm? Surely the dwarves could not make something as intricate as this."

"Its name is unknown." Loki said, then paused. "It was destroyed long ago. Amazing that this should survive. I think it could use a test flight, don't you?"

Thor frowned at him. "Loki, I don't like this. We should leave."

"Leave if you wish. I won't." Loki smiled. "This is my ticket out of here."

It took Thor a ridiculously long time to piece two and two together, but the second he did, he lunged for the console. "Loki, no! Stay away from—"

But Loki was already dancing around it, flipping switches, spinning levers, and pulling down handles. Thor was thrown to the side before he could reach the controls, and Loki grabbed onto a chair by the consoles, pulled himself into it, and let the machine take them where it would.

**A/N: Right. Hopefully the pace will calm down a little bit. So! Any guesses as to what time machine they're using? Any guesses as to what realm it's from? No, I won't say exactly what or where…for crossover reasons, of course. But if you know where I got the idea from, you might recognize some of the things Thor and Loki will encounter. It'll play out differently than you'll expect, though. After all, Thor and Loki are very different from the person that they got it from!**

**If you've got this far, please review! Oh, and feel free to PM me if you've got any ideas. I have plenty of my own, of course, but I'm definitely not saying no to any of yours!**

**-AaylaKit of Niflheim**


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